Scoping review reveals systemic marginalization of community voices in African university partnerships, highlighting widespread project disconnection and disengagement.
Key Points
To synthesize community partner perspectives in African university-community engagement and examine the relational tensions and lessons drawn from their experiences.
Conducted a scoping review adhering to PRISMA guidelines across electronic databases.
Identified and thematically analyzed 17 empirical studies evaluating community partners' voices in university-community engagement projects.
Identified core tensions, showing engagement initiatives are disconnected from community needs, research findings are rarely returned to communities, and Indigenous languages and knowledge systems remain marginalized.
Observed that community voices are consistently relegated rather than utilized to initiate or lead projects, resulting in widespread community disengagement.